Conservative Daily News » European Unionhttp://www.conservativedailynews.com
The best conservative political news, analysis and opinionSun, 02 Aug 2015 21:49:54 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Greece is given lifeline, but Sunday could be the endhttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/greece-is-given-lifeline-but-sunday-could-be-the-end/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/greece-is-given-lifeline-but-sunday-could-be-the-end/#commentsWed, 08 Jul 2015 06:50:02 +0000http://www.conservativedailynews.com/?p=112465Greek ministers met with the EU, ECB and IMF leaders on Tuesday. The meeting resulted in a short-term loan to keep their banks afloat, but only until Sunday.

Greece’s banks had almost completely run out of money. To help Greece survive until the meeting on Sunday, the European Central Bank (ECB) offered a small run of liquidity to Greek banks in trade for increased assets as collateral. Euros just got more expensive for Greece.

European leadership expected Greek Priminister Alexis Tsipris and his new finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos to come with a plan to begin fixing the internals of the Greek economy. The pair instead showed up to the emergency meeting with an already rejected proposal which angered EU ministers.

After the failed meeting, European Council President Donald Tusk showed frustration. “Until now I have avoided talking about deadlines,” Tusk, told reporters. “But tonight I have to say it loud and clear — the final deadline ends this week.”

The current timeline set by European leaders is that Greece must submit a serious proposal by Thursday to be considered by a full meeting of all 28 EU leaders on Sunday. If there is no deal on Sunday, Greece’s exit from the European Union and the Euro may follow within days.

Socialism, as Lenin taught, is the pathway to communism, but the two are distinct.

Both decry private ownership of property. Socialism puts command of industry in the hands of the government while communism gives ownership to the people (kind of.)

Both result in lower production as no single worker sees the benefit of his work. Putting in extra hours does not help him feed his family or protect his friends and putting in minimal effort offers no penalty.

The Greek government has thrown up trial balloons on options such as nationalizing their banks (government ownership), printing their own copies of the Euro and have recently turned to Moscow for guidance.

The Greek government upped the stakes further by revealing that the Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, had telephoned the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to discuss the consequences of the referendum in which Greeks voted by 61 per cent to 39 per cent to reject the EU’s previous austerity demands.

So whether Greece is going full on socialist remains to be seen. But as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” And the Greeks are quickly running out of euros.

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/will-greece-turn-to-outright-socialism/feed/0Eurogeddon – Greece gives EU the one finger salutehttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/eurogeddon-greece-gives-eu-the-one-finger-salute/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/eurogeddon-greece-gives-eu-the-one-finger-salute/#commentsSun, 05 Jul 2015 19:22:29 +0000http://www.conservativedailynews.com/?p=112380The polls are in and Greece’s citizens have decided to reject the austerity measures required by European creditors to secure more credit.

In a sort of nationalistic pride, the ‘no’ vote seems to have won as citizens agreed with Greek Prime Minister Tsipras that EU leaders were acting like terrorists.

Citizens see the austerity measures as blackmail – forcing them to pay higher taxes, get fewer services just to keep their banks working.

The end result of today’s referendum vote is unclear. While EU leaders have warned that a no vote would likely result in the exit of Greece from the EU, Greek leaders see the result as having strengthened their bargaining position in bailout talks.

One way or the other, the no vote points out a striking problem with the European Union. While monetary policy is set from a central EU government, fiscal policy is set by each independent country. The disconnect can lead to exactly the result Greece is experiencing.

With Brussels trying to set Greece’s fiscal policy, it changes the agreement between partner-state and the EU governing body. If Greece had accepted the measures, the EU would effectively be running Greek fiscal policy and monetary policy. It is but one slippery step to having all policy decided by a central government.

With the vote tallied, EU finance ministers aren’t exactly sure what to do next:

There are no plans for an emergency meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Greece on Monday after Greeks voted overwhelmingly to reject the terms of a bailout deal with international creditors, a euro zone official said on Sunday.

Asked whether a meeting of the Eurogroup was planned for Monday, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “No way. [The ministers] would not know what to discuss.”

While the EU leaders don’t know what to discuss, the Greek finance minister does. He has called for an emergency meeting to discuss “liquidity.” That loosely translates to capital controls tightening even further as Reuters reports:

Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani told Alpha TV that, as part of those measures, the government and banks had agreed at the time that people would also not be allowed to withdraw cash from safe deposit boxes.

What happens if Spain, Portugal, France or other financially weak EU nations experience similar fiscal problems?

The issue of debtor/creditor relationships can be extended to the United States. As American debt-to-GDP ratios continue to worsen, how will her creditors change their requirements so that the U.S. can continue spending their money irresponsibly?

Greek polls have closed and the indication from exit polling data is that Greece will thumb its nose at the European Union.

With just 20% of the vote officially tallied, the no’s are leading the yes’s 60% to 40%.

A ‘No’ vote (OXI) means that Greeks refuse the spending cuts and financial restructuring measures required by the nation’s creditors in order to secure more loans. That no also indicates a show of support for the Tsipras government who has been pushing for a ‘no’ result. European leaders have said that a ‘no’ vote could result in Greece exiting the Euro (Grexit.)

A ‘Yes’ vote (NAI) means that Greek’s accept the austerity measures of their financiers. All sorts of government programs will be required to cut spending and taxes will increase substantially. It would have indicated a vote of “no confidence” in Tsipras and likely led to new elections. But, Greece would secure more funding and a secure, for now, place in the European experiment.

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/greece-votes/feed/0Germany begs Britain not to leave the European Unionhttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/germany-begs-britain-not-to-leave-the-european-union/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/germany-begs-britain-not-to-leave-the-european-union/#commentsSat, 04 Jul 2015 21:29:23 +0000http://www.conservativedailynews.com/?p=112370International finance news has been singularly focused on Greece and its possible exit from the EU, but there is another EU Island nation considering a break from the European Union.

The British Conservative government has found dealing with the EU to be a bureaucratic nightmare and Prime Minister David Cameron has made public comments about his dissatisfaction with it. The Germans are sweating things a bit.

Michael Fuchs, a member of Angela Merkel’s party and deputy chairman of the ruling CDU-CSU coalition, said the British goals of a more efficient single market with less red tape were aligned with Germany’s.

“I want the UK to stay in the EU, and I cannot even imagine an EU without the UK. I don’t want to imagine it,” he said.

Why is Germany suddenly concerned that the United Kingdom might go its own way? Because Prime Minister David Cameron has pushed for a referendum vote to do so:

Mr Fuchs described Brussels as a “huge” bureaucracy that needed to be scaled back. “I fully agree with certain statements of [Prime Minister] David Cameron saying that Brussels need not be such a huge bureaucracy, with so much red tape.

“That’s quite important, I think, and we need Cameron’s help to change it.”

The Conservative Government has pledged to hold a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU by the end of 2017.

Much of this seems to center around Cameron’s push to lower the amount of welfare that the U.K. is required to provide to migrants from other EU countries. The EU rules are so difficult to change that a better deal for Britain is highly-unlikely.

Much like Greece, England has figured out that the only way to get the attention of the European bureaucrats in Brussels is to threaten to leave the EU. Whether it works for either of them, one referendum vote may decide.

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2015/07/germany-begs-britain-not-to-leave-the-european-union/feed/0EU goes Marxist, little opposition from citizenryhttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2013/04/eu-goes-marxist-little-opposition-from-citizenry/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2013/04/eu-goes-marxist-little-opposition-from-citizenry/#commentsMon, 15 Apr 2013 03:45:51 +0000http://www.conservativedailynews.com/?p=87358Willing to do just about anything to avoid the collapse of their treasured Euro, Europeans are considering marxist policies so to save a failing currency.

The Telegraph reported that “Wealthy households would face new taxes on property and other assets under German plans to prop up the struggling eurozone.”

When governments turn to the producers in their countries to fund the failures of others, the end is nigh. It is fully Marxist philosophy (and a proven failed one) that says that “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” – now Germany and other nations in the EU look willing to entertain socialistic policies despite their failures.

At this time, Germany is simply proposing a rule that would force troubled counties to tax their wealthier citizens to cover bloated government spending.

The slippery slope that German Chancellor Merkel’s advisors didn’t consider is an historic one. Soon enough, Germany may find economic hard times. Soon enough Germany’s producers will be left to pay the balance of social and government programs voted in by the rest of the citizenry.

As the legendary and recent departed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said “eventually you run out of other people’s money.” It may not be long until Europe’s middle class finds themselves to be “the wealthy” as the uber rich get taxed into leaving. Then the middle class will look elsewhere and the only ones left paying the bills of an overspending government are the low-income earners. Find a Marxist country where this isn’t true.

America has its own challenges. States like California and New York are increasingly determining what citizens may or may not do and how much the wealthy should pay to subsidize those who will not produce. The USA is not without condemnation in this respect.

Marxism is a failed ideology that is so pleasing to the uninformed that it spreads like wildfire. “I can get fed and housed even without work?” asks the recipient. “I take risk and it goes to the unproductive?” asks the producer. How long can that imbalance last?

Europe may soon prove the equation imbalanced. And Americans will be left asking their president “why, exactly, did you want us to be more like Europe?”

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2013/04/eu-goes-marxist-little-opposition-from-citizenry/feed/1EU Unemployment: Ouch!http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/07/eu-unemployment-ouch/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/07/eu-unemployment-ouch/#commentsTue, 03 Jul 2012 00:08:22 +0000http://www.conservativedailynews.com/?p=59176European unemployment for May reached 11.1% making it the highest ever for a single currency area. Nearly, one in four adults in Spain is now unemployed but for the under 25 age group a critical 52% in Spain and Greece are unable to find work. In total, 17.6 million people were out of work in the Eurozone in May, up 88,000 from April and 1.8 million more than 2011.

The Eurozone banks are expected to make interest rate cuts this week in an effort to improve a hemorrhaging economy. However, confidence in the European economy continues to drop as all countries experience higher unemployment levels, except for Germany (5.6% and the under 25’s at 7.9%). Recently even German markets have experienced an economic slowdown.

One has to wonder how long the Germans will work to pay for and bail out the rest of the European Union.

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/07/eu-unemployment-ouch/feed/0Adieu France, So Long Stabilityhttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/06/adieu-france-so-long-stability/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/06/adieu-france-so-long-stability/#commentsTue, 19 Jun 2012 21:40:35 +0000http://www.conservativedailynews.com/?p=57714French Socialist President Francois Hollande’s newly elected government is planning to raise taxes on big companies while deterring businesses from engaging in layoffs by making that process more costly.

Hoping to nudge companies into investing rather than paying profits to shareholders, the government plans to impose a new 3% tax on dividends. Other plans include raising levies on capital gains, a special tax on banks and on energy companies, as well as imposition of government policies requiring the sale of profitable businesses in lieu of closure.

France’s Socialist government will dictate that it is illegal for a profitable, privately owned business to close its own doors.

So much for having the French people engaged in business activity. This less business-friendly government is going about the business of smothering France’s economy.

The prospects of trying to do business in France’s new economic environment resulted in margins tumbling, cash flow dwindling and orders collapsing. The uncertain outlook has postponed or cancelled investment and hiring.

Medef President Laurence Parisot told a news conference “The first source of financing for companies’ projects comes from private investors. Increasing tax on dividends runs the risk that private investors either invest less or elsewhere. We’ve had many meetings with the staff in ministries to explain what’s happening, but we are becoming deeply distressed. We fear a systematic strangling. Let’s be careful not to transform our country into a super-rigid enclave completely out of touch with the functioning of market economies as found everywhere else.” Parisot said.

Statistical data from the INSEE agency shows that business confidence fell in June to the lowest level since 2009, when France’s economy first showed signs of emerging from the nation’s worst post-war recession.

Hollande was elected last month after pledging to fight unemployment and revive growth. What he and his government are planning is not the way to go about achieving those goals. Attempting to resolve an economic dilemma that nanny state entitlement spending caused by destroying the tax base through imposition of business strangling regulations and taxes, while increasing the amount of spending done on entitlement programs is like trying to get a drunk sober by giving him a case of champagne. It’s going to have an effect opposite to the one desired. It is only going to make matters worse.

The way to balance a government budget is to stimulate private sector economic growth. That is what creates the tax base required to fund the government. Making it more difficult and more expensive to conduct business in the private sector is counter-productive to balancing any government budget.

By following economic policies similar to those Hollande plans for France, the United States is currently experiencing 1.8% economic growth. At this same point in President Ronald Reagan’s first term in office, his economic policies had stimulated the private sector U.S. economy to a 7.2% growth rate.

Can you say duh?

Both America and France could learn a thing or two from the economic policies of Ronald Reagan. In the case of the current White House occupant, that does not include hollow, unfounded, meaningless claims that you are much like President Reagan. It makes no difference whether those claims are made by you or your eager, obedient lapdogs in the institutionalized “progressive” left’s smear machine, referred to by your dumbed down, ill informed “progressive” congregation as the mainstream media.

France has the second biggest economy in the European Union. If this is the best the French can come up with, it is time to bid adieu to France and to European Union stability.

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/06/adieu-france-so-long-stability/feed/1A Year of Historic Electionshttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/05/a-year-of-historic-elections/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/05/a-year-of-historic-elections/#commentsFri, 25 May 2012 21:54:38 +0000http://www.conservativedailynews.com/?p=54682The year 2012 is rapidly becoming a year of historic elections.

Greece held one recently where no single Party won enough of the vote to form a government. In ensuing weeks, no progress was made by the nation’s Parties while negotiating to form a coalition. This potentially could lead to a chaotic situation – not just for Greece. The eventual outcome might lead to that country’s exit from the Eurozone. Fragmentation or an unraveling of the Eurozone would have enormous impact on Europe as well as a sagging global economy.

France elected a Socialist president who plans to reopen the spigot of government largess. What’s noteworthy about the French election is that Hollande’s victory was due in large part to a boost from Islamist voters. Having a presidential election within one of the European Union’s largest economic powers decided by voters whose cultural background includes centuries of antagonism and hostility towards Europe should be quite alarming to all of western civilization.

Now Egypt’s presidential election is apparently headed for a runoff between Mohammed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq. The Egyptian election, declared by world leaders as an historic first, could well be a harbinger for the Middle East, Europe and the world

Egypt was the first Arab country to officially recognize Israel and sign a peace agreement in 1979. The Muslim Brotherhood has since called for an end to the Egypt-Israeli peace treaty. The strongly conservative Islamic movement wants Egypt to move away from secularism and be ruled by the Quran. That does not bode well for western civilization. If an Egyptian government dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood ends the Egypt-Israeli peace treaty, the front line of western civilization will be in enormous peril. Not only is Israel the only true democracy in the Middle East, it’s the sole nation in the region where religious tolerance is practiced.

In America, November’s election will also hold historical significance. Will voters in the United States re-elect an incumbent who sat silently by while a tyrannical, Quran ruled theocracy in Iran slaughtered it’s own citizens in cold blood for disputing election results? Will voters re-elect the candidate who openly supported the Arab Spring revolts that led directly to the ascension of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? Will voters choose to retain someone who so lusts to bask in glory for “getting” Osama bin Laden that his administration granted access to highly restricted national security information to Hollywood producers to make a movie glorifying “his” achievement? A movie scheduled for release right before the election? Will the United States choose to keep those in power that leaked to Pakistan the name of the doctor who helped find bin Laden, resulting in his being sentenced to decades in prison by what’s at best a fair weather ally? Will voters elect to continue an administration that insists on calling the war on terror “an overseas contingency operation”? That continues calling terrorist attacks “man caused disasters”? That’s own Secretary of State officially refers to Osama bin Laden as a murder, instead of a terrorist?

The current White House occupant violated the Constitution by accepting the position of Chaimanship of the UN Security Council. He reduced NATO security by canceling missile defense shield installations in Europe, supported a pro-Chavez candidate in Honduras and violated the Law by engaging the United States military in overseas hostilities without the consent of Congress. He’s abandoned enforcing the security of American borders while transferred billions of taxpayer dollars to enemies of the United States through Foreign Aid. He’s snubbed Britain, one of America’s traditional allies repeatedly, and treated the duly elected Prime Minister of Israel the way a member of the KKK would treat a Negro.

Over the past century, especially post WWII, America has been leader of the free world. Having originated from and being comprised primarily of former European colonies, America is naturally the leader of the western world. By extension, that makes the President of the United States the leader of western civilization. Will U.S. voters re-elect someone whose own actions indicate open hostility towards western civilization, or elect someone who will defend the west?

History shows Americans will vote to defend the west. What “progressives” will choose is largely foretold by the actions already taken by their choice in 2008 for the Office of the Presidency.

The November 2012 U.S. elections will indeed be historic. Not just for Americans.

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/05/a-year-of-historic-elections/feed/0Bad News for Globalistshttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/05/bad-news-for-globalists/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/05/bad-news-for-globalists/#commentsThu, 24 May 2012 21:50:34 +0000http://www.conservativedailynews.com/?p=54547European business activity fell in May, nearing a 35-month low, according to a survey by Markit. Its survey, based on European manufacturing and service sectors, fell to 45.9. The euro fell to a 22-month low against the dollar in response. Disagreement at Wednesday’s summit between European leaders about how to solve the dilemma did nothing to boost confidence.

Chris Williamson, chief economist for Markit, said research indicated the downturn had “gathered further momentum in May. The survey is broadly consistent with gross domestic product falling by at least 0.5% across the region in the second quarter, as an increasingly steep downturn in the periphery infects both France and Germany,”

Economic reports show that concerns over Greece are having a broader economic impact than originally expected. “It clearly indicates that the evaporating sentiment that we have seen in recent weeks, as the Greece crisis has intensified, is having a big impact on the economy” said Peter Dixon from Commerzbank.

Socialist President Hollande wants France to increase spending; a plan Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany will oppose until there is more budget discipline across Europe.

Facing the reality that sovereign nations will retain and defend their own national views, interests and sovereignty is bad news for Globalists. New World Order proponents saw Establishment of the European Union and eurozone as an important step in the march towards their grand vision of One World Government.

Theorists within the “progressive” movement have envisioned such an eventuality since the early Twentieth Century. Woodrow Wilson, after winning re-election in 1916 on the campaign slogan: “He Kept Us Out Of War”, entered WWI in order to involve the United States in world affairs, thereby creating justification for his desire to establish the League of Nations.

While in Paris after the war, Wilson engaged in creation of the League of Nations while also helping shape the Treaty of Versailles. The Versailles Treaty resulted in economic devastation within Germany, leading to the rise of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Germany. In 1919, Wilson and a Republican controlled Senate fought over giving the League of Nations power to force the U.S. into a war, a clear violation of Article One, Section Eight, Clause Ten of the United States Constitution, which assigns Power to declare War to the U.S. Congress. To the credit of Republicans in the Senate, they stood for U.S. sovereignty, rejecting the Treaty of Versailles, and voting against U.S. entry into the League of Nations.

Although the League of Nations proved completely impotent in the prevention of WWII, that didn’t deter “progressive” Globalists from forming the United Nations. The original aim of the UN was to keep peace throughout the world, develop friendly relations between nations, to help eliminate poverty, disease and illiteracy, stop environmental destruction and encourage respect for rights and freedoms. These aims were based on, among other principles, that all member states would have sovereign equality and that the UN was not to interfere in the domestic affairs of any country.

Pending before the United States Senate today are threats to U.S. national sovereignty:

The Convention on Biological Diversity, the Law of the Sea treaty, the International Labor Organization Convention No. 111, the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and other Related Materials, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Additionally, there’s Agenda 21, which dictates action to be taken globally, nationally, and locally in every area where humans directly affect the environment. If the Agenda 21 agenda doesn’t clearly describe the UN interfering in America’s domestic affairs, what would? The Law of the Sea treaty, if ratified, would grant the UN mineral rights within U.S. territorial waters. If that’s not a violation of national sovereignty, what is? Were the firearms treaty to be ratified, the UN would then have control over arms within the United States, an open violation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

It’s time for Americans to stand up for national sovereignty and kiss the UN, Globalists and One World Government “progressives” goodbye. The best way to accomplish this is to do what Americans did in 1920 after Woodrow Wilson’s early attempt to violation American sovereignty. Elect Republicans in a landslide.

Well he’s not well known in America, except for political geeks like me, but over in Europe Nigel Farage is known as a political firebrand who supports the democratic leadership of European nation states and vehemently opposes a one world order. His speeches are viral on the Internet and this week he delivered another sizzler to the European Parliament.

U.K Representative to the European Union Nigel Farage took to the floor to criticize the violence in Greece over the weekend and blasts the non-elected, politically appointed technocrat leader of the new Greek government over what continues to be a meltdown of the Greek economy.

See the video below and a transcript of the speech below.

Farage’s comments were directed at un-elected technocratic Prime Minister of Greece Lucas Papademos. In his speech, Farage criticizes the way Papademos was appointed, without the will of the Greeks and states that in the current economic turmoil now affecting the Greek people, that he too would be protesting in the streets.

Papademos was appointed to be the Greek Prime Minister in November of last year after the earlier Prime Minister stepped down under pressure from the E.U. Before his appointment, Papademos was the V.P. of the European Central Bank, and before that the Governor of the Bank of Greece.

Farage says, “Well Commissioner, you picked the right man. Puppet Papademos is in place and as Athens caught fire on Sunday night he rather took my breath away. He said, ‘Violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country.’

“What democratic country!?”

He’s not even a democratically elected prime minister. He’s been appointed by you guys. Greece is not run through democracy now, it is run through a Troika. Three foreign officials that fly into Athens airport and tell the Greeks what they can and cannot do.

The violence and destruction that you saw on Sunday is being caused directly because people are having their democratic rights taken from them – What else can they do?

And I must say, if I was a Greek citizen I would’ve been out there, joining those protests on Sunday. I’d be out there trying to bring down this monstrosity that has been put upon those people.

And in his efforts, in the Puppet’s efforts to get the MPs to vote for the bailout package, he warned them, that if they didn’t do so there would be a dramatic decline in living standards.

Well, has he looked out the front door?

Has he seen the fact that 50 per cent of the young people are unemployed already? Has he seen the fact, that the economy, far from stalling has contracted for five years in a row, and is now accelerating on a downward death spiral – a contraction of 7 per cent per annum?

Greece is being driven into the ground, and I think, frankly, when it comes to chaos, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

“These policies are driving Greece towards a revolution. They need to be set free. If they don’t get the Drachma back you will be responsible for something truly, truly horrible.”

Not shy about sharing his opinions, Farage has been sanctioned by the EU leadership for blasting the Head of the EU Parliment, Mr. Van Rumpuy of Belgian in a fiery personal attack. On several occasions he has criticized the EU for undermining the democratically elected governments of European Countries in favor of the European Nation State. See one of his speeches below.

Farage’s most recent comments come as the Greeks attempt to get a hold of their massive debts and high unemployment. Eurozone officials attempted on Thursday local time to postpone another massive bailout of the Greek government while at the same time trying to stabilize the Greeks to prevent a national default, according to a report from TVNZ.

According to the article, the bailout delay could last until April when the Greeks are expected to elect a new government. Conditions of the bailout include the requirement that the new Greek governments continue their austerity measures, cutting back on entitlements, continuing with labor reforms and slashing their federal debt.

Potential future Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaris, the head of Greece’s conservative party, has agreed in writing that he would continue with the austerity measures demanded by the EU if he is elected.

Farage’s speeches continue to garner interest around the globe as he takes his stand against one world government takeovers and massive undemocratic liberal policies. One may wonder if Farage is perhaps the world’s next Winston Churchill?

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/02/uk-parliamentarian-blasts-greek-technocrat-over-violence-economic-meltdown/feed/0European High court upholds jet plane carbon taxhttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2011/12/european-high-court-upholds-jet-plane-carbon-law/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2011/12/european-high-court-upholds-jet-plane-carbon-law/#commentsWed, 21 Dec 2011 16:54:10 +0000http://conservativedailynews.com/?p=31268A law requiring flights into and out of the European Union (EU) to pay a carbon tax was upheld by the European Court of Justice on Wednesday saying that, “application of the emissions trading scheme to aviation infringes neither the principles of customary international law at issue, nor the open-skies agreement.”

The law requires that any aircraft landing or taking off from an EU airport is required to purchase a carbon permit which could cost the airlines, passengers, freight carriers and customers nearly $12 billion by the end of 2020. The amount of the tax is proportional to the distance flown by the airplane after departing an EU airport or from the last take-off prior to reaching an EU facility.

The most immediate impact will be the it will now cost more for Europeans to travel anywhere by airplane and freight costs requiring air transport will be more expensive.

The airlines have little choice and are complying with the ruling “under protest”. The cost of the tax will be passed on to passengers making travel to and from Europe more expensive.

Freight carriers are taking a different approach to the business-killing decision. UPS is studying ways to redirect flights around the EU. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal the carrier explained how it might modify its routes to deal with the expensive carbon tax:

Mitch Nichols, president of UPS Airlines, said in an interview that the company may look at redirecting flights between its hubs in Hong Kong and Cologne, Germany, by going through Mumbai. That will cut the cost of the tax by about a quarter because UPS would only be charged for the distance flown between Cologne and Mumbai.

Airlines are unlikely to make similar changes, but passengers might. While the airlines will still offer direct flights into Europe, savvy travelers may opt to fly into a nearby non-EU nation simply because the ticket won’t have the up-charge on it or they may choose alternate destinations altogether.

Ultimately the tax will have a stifling effect on EU manufacturers as it will cost more to bring raw materials into the EU and be more expensive to ship finished goods out. The affirmation of the proposed change could put more pressure on European manufacturers to move their operations to non-EU countries.